No Wind — No Race

The Mayor’s Cup and the Governor’s Cup were scheduled today, but somebody forgot to schedule the wind.  So we rafted up with the committee boat and waited.  Before long there were crew members swimming and the shot-ski came out on Powderhound.  We swabbed the deck, had lunch and a little rum ‘n orange juice.  No racing today!

(l-r) Andy, Kim, Mark waiting for wind with madness going on in the background…

RCR Full Moon Series #2 Recap

Results:  7th

Crew:  Judy, Kim, Andy, Mark

The night was almost a copycat of last week’s race:  light air triangle (WNW 4-6).

Had a bad start.  The proper start was on port, but we went to the line early and got stuffed by KEYA who stayed on starboard longer than they needed to just to mess with us.  But after we got across the line, we caught a little breeze before KEYA and Lady Jane.  So the first leg was a port beam reach.  We sailed that leg very well and stayed high on the leg so that we rolled less than others.  We rounded the first mark at the same time as Lady Jane with KEYA just a little behind us.

The second leg was almost dead downwind to Mark B.  By then the big boats were catching up with us (another reverse start) so we were blanketed by a big Beneteau.  Lady Jane and KEYA took a higher line and got out ahead but they were still in reach when we rounded B with K-9 next to us.

The finish was pretty much dead upwind.  Then something changed.  I don’t think it was seaweed, though there were whole “islands” seaweed out there.  For some reason we were just slow on the the starboard tacks (3.2 to 3.5) and faster on port (4.0 to 4.2).  All the other boats stretched out a lot on us, and Good Vices caught up with us.  Lady Jane rounded B about 2 minutes ahead of us, but they finished 9 minutes ahead.  K-9 rounded with us, but finished 2 minutes ahead.  I just couldn’t find the steering groove on starboard.  We checked everything (main traveler, jib cars, etc.).  Something was just odd.  So we struggled to finish 7th, way behind most of the fleet, but just ahead of Good Vices.  Afterwards we looked at the track and it was fine (we were making clear 90 degree tacks) — just something odd.

Overall, however, it was another beautiful night for sailing!

RCR Full Moon Series #1 Recap

Results:  6th

Crew:  Rosemary, Kim, Mark, Andy, Judy

A light air triangle, WNW 3-6 kts.  Had a decent start on a broad reach to Mark S.  The wind wouldn’t stay dead behind us, so we poled the jib out to leeward and sailed a broad reach all of the way.  Of course, Serendipity, KEYA and Smokin J were out ahead (by a lot) and we stayed at the “front of the back”.  Had a good rounding and headed to Mark O on a beat-to-close-reach.  We stayed high to limit the number of boats that were rolling us (due to the the reverse start).  About halfway to the mark we had a brief, but nice, puff and were sailing at 4.5 to 5 knots for a couple minutes.  With the right winds, constant trimming and a decent tactic of staying high we were able to stretch out on the boats behind but not able to close the gap with the boats ahead.

Immediately after rounding we sailed into a nasty hole and struggled for about 5 to 10 minutes.  Finally we got into some consistent, but still light, air.  We sailed the first part of the leg on starboard.  A few hundred yards offshore we got headed so we tacked early, and it turned out be the right thing,  Right after we tacked, there was a nice windshift to SW and we ended up pointing right at the finish.  Once in a while we’re in the right place at the right time.  So that was good, but of course it was balanced by quickly diminishing winds, so we all struggled to finish.  But we made it, and we beat K-9, Good Vices and Lady Jane.

Overall, a beautiful night for sailing and we sailed well.

Oh, and one more thing:  the Gannon Alumni office is circulating some “traveling knights.”  They sent me one yesterday, so MC Gensheimer made him a little life jacket and he went racing with us.  We took a couple pix before the start.

Victor E. Knight, Gannon’s traveling knight, went racing with us! He’s not very agile, but he kept the crew in line!